Posted by Cat on August 29, 2013

Raghavan Iyer's new cookbook, Indian Cooking Unfolded, is our Top Pick in Cookbooks! Each of these 100 recipes uses 10 ingredients or fewer, all of which you can find at your everyday market. There's no better way to learn to cook Indian food at home!

An unsuspecting eater will take a look and say “oooh, crab cakes,” but looks are deceiving. These golden yellow patties dotted with fresh herbs are in fact made from potatoes and harbor assertive flavors that keep you begging for just one more bite. There is a reason they are perfect finger foods on the streets of India. These grab- and-go patties are pungent, minty, and crisp on the outside with a well-rounded finish that adroitly balances the heat from the chiles with the cool-down qualities of starchy potatoes and bread. They make an ideal accompaniment to the glasses of steaming, sweet chai sold in disposable clay cups on the streets of Mumbai and Delhi.

Makes 12 cakes; serves 6

1 pound russet or Yukon Gold potatoes

1?2 small red onion, coarsely chopped

1?4 cup firmly packed fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems

2 tablespoons firmly packed fresh mint leaves

4 to 6 fresh green serrano chiles, stems discarded

5 to 7 slices (each about 1?2 inch thick) good-quality white bread

11?2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt

1?2 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 tablespoons canola oil, plus oil for panfrying

1. Peel the potatoes, cut them into large chunks, place them in a small saucepan, and add enough water to cover. Bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and let simmer, covered, until the potatoes are very tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

2. hile the potatoes are cooking, place the onion, cilantro, mint, and chiles in the bowl of a food processor. Using the pulsing action, mince the blend to create an earthy, pungent mix that has a strong minty aroma. Letting the processor run constantly instead of using quick pulses will break down the onion into a watery mess that will create excess liquid.

3. Once the potatoes are fall-apart ten- der, drain them in a colander and place them in a medium-size bowl. Mash them well. Wet the bread slices with warm tap water, then squeeze them tight to remove all excess water. Add the mass to the pota- toes. Scrape the minced onion–mint medley over this mélange and sprinkle the salt and turmeric on top. Using your hand, squeeze the mixture to break apart the damp bread into smaller pieces, making sure you incor- porate all of it into the potatoes to make a bumpy-feeling dough. It will be sun-yellow and speckled with green herbs.

4. Coat the dough with the 2 tablespoons of oil. Form the dough into a thick log. Cut it in half lengthwise and cut each half into 6 equal portions. Shape each portion into a ball about the size of a golf ball and press it gently between your palms to flatten it into a patty that is about 3 inches in diameter and 1?2 inch thick.

5. Line a plate or baking sheet with paper towels. Pour oil to a depth of 1?8 to 1?4 inch into a large skillet (preferably nonstick or cast iron). Heat the oil over medium heat until it appears to shimmer. Place 6 of the patties in the skillet and panfry until the bottoms are golden brown and crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. (You are cooking only 6 because you don’t want to overcrowd the skillet and get greasy results.) Turn the patties over and cook them until the second side is nicely browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the patties to the paper towels to drain. Repeat with the remaining 6 patties.

6. Serve the potato cakes warm.

EXTRA CREDIT

To rewarm any leftover potato cakes, preheat the oven to 300°F and heat them uncovered on an ungreased baking sheet until they are warm all the way through, about 10 minutes. Or you may microwave them on high power for 1 to 2 minutes and stuff them into sliced pita bread nestled among shreds of romaine lettuce or spinach with a drizzle of a favorite yogurt sauce (I love the Yogurt with Grapes, page 108).

You can also turn any leftovers into vegetarian burgers by warming them in a nonstick skillet with a slice of your favorite cheese on top. Place a lid on the skillet to melt the cheese. Then put the burgers in toasted buns and top each with a slice of red onion and tomato. Don’t forget the fries. In my book, there is nothing wrong with potatoes, bread, and more potatoes for a carbohydrate overload. You will thank me for it.

Excerpted from Indian Cooking Unfolded. Copyright 2013 by Raghavan Iyer. Used by permission of Workman Publishing Co., Inc., New York. All Rights Reserved. Read our review of this book.

Posted by Cat on August 15, 2013

Our August Top Pick in Cookbooks is Raghavan Iyer's Indian Cooking Unfolded, a wonderfully accessible "Master Class" for cooking Indian food. Cooking columnist Sybil Pratt calls this one "maharajah-worthy."

Creamy Wild Salmon with KaleGluten Free

When you use a fairly expensive, rich, and well-marbled fish like wild salmon, you want to make sure you don’t clutter it with too many spices or overcook it. Coconut milk maintains that velvety mouthfeel of the fish and provides a stunning backdrop to its orange-pink vibrancy. I serve the salmon with those plump pearls of Israeli couscous that play on your senses with their caviarlike texture.

1. Sprinkle about 1?4 teaspoon of the turmeric on one side of the salmon fillet and press it into the fish. Turn the fish over and repeat with the remaining 1?4 teaspoon of turmeric. Set the salmon aside as you prepare the spice paste.

2. Combine the vinegar, chiles, salt, and nutmeg in a small bowl to make a slurry. Set the slurry aside.

3. Fill up a medium-size bowl with cold water. Take a leaf of kale, cut along both sides of the tough rib, and discard it. Slice the leaf in half lengthwise. Repeat with the remaining leaves. Stack the leaf halves, about 6 at a time, one on top of the other, and roll them into a tight log. Thinly slice the log crosswise; you will end up with long, slender shreds. When cutting the kale, you can’t help notice how strong smelling and grassy it is (no wonder I love the smell of fresh-mowed grass in the summer). Dunk the shreds into the bowl of water to rinse off any grit, then scoop the shreds out and drain them in a colander. Repeat once or twice if the kale does not appear clean.

4. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil appears to shimmer, add the turmeric-smeared fillet to the skillet. The instant sizzle and sear will turn the salmon light brown on the underside, about 2 minutes. Turn it over and repeat with the second side, about 2 minutes. Transfer the fish to a plate. Add the garlic to the skillet and stir-fry it until light brown and aromatic, about 1 minute.

5. Pour the vinegar-based spice slurry into the skillet and stir to mix with the garlic. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes. The pungency will slap you in the face (in a good way—I promise) and the liquid will release all the browned bits of fish from the bottom of the skillet into the thin sauce.

6. Add the kale shreds and stir to coat them evenly with the liquid. Pour 1?2 cup of water into the skillet and stir. Lower the heat to medium, cover the skillet, and stew the kale, stirring occasionally, until the shreds are tender when tested (and tasted, I hope), 5 to 8 minutes.

7. Stir the coconut milk into the kale. Let the milk come to a boil uncovered. Add the seared salmon to the liquid, basting it to make sure it continues to poach. Cook, uncovered, scooping up the sauce and basting the fish occasionally, until it barely starts to flake, 3 to 5 minutes.

8. Transfer the fish to a serving plate. Let the sauce boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until it thickens, 3 to 4 minutes. Pour the sauce over the salmon and serve.

EXTRA CREDIT

A stout bunch, dark green and spritely, Tuscan kale stands for the epitome of winter bravado. Even though it grows all through the year, we often associate kale with cold weather, that brightness among a sea of white, very much like the evergreen Christmas tree. Curly, ornamental (those tight bases of light purple leaves with a frizzy head of green), or Russian kale— all varieties work well for this recipe. Bursting with antioxidants, vitamins A and C, and iron, kale is a nutritional powerhouse among a sea of greens.
Its tough leaves make it harder to cook than some greens, but with the right amount of moisture, it turns tender within about 5 minutes.

To grind the chiles de a?rbol, pulverize them in a spice grinder (like a coffee grinder) until they are the texture of finely ground black pepper. The heat from freshly ground dried chiles is much more intense than preground cayenne.

Before opening a can of coconut milk, shake it well to make sure the thick milk gets dispersed evenly. If the can sits around unopened, the thicker
part usually floats to the top and congeals into a creamy mass. If shaking does nothing (usually if the can has been sitting in a cool spot, this will happen), then once you open the can, scrape the contents into a small bowl, and whisk the thicker milk with the wheylike separated liquid to create an evenly thick milk.

Excerpted from Indian Cooking Unfolded. Copyright 2013 by Raghavan Iyer. Used by permission of Workman Publishing Co., Inc., New York. All Rights Reserved. Read our review of this book.